The Dark is Rising

[Amy Z]

Rebecca wrote:

> I've read Arthurian legends since I was a kid, and I read The Dark 
Is Rising
> sequence when I was in my early teens, and to be honest I didn't 
really find
> that my Arthurian knowledge made that much difference to 
understanding the
> series.

Oh well.  I'll read them anyway for the intrinsic value.

I was totally in love with Will *and* Bran, though (as well
> as the entire country of Wales, the Welsh language, and just about
> everything else in THE GREY KING except Caradog Pritchard).  

Yeah, Wales definitely captured my heart (more than Will or Bran).  
Talk about needing a glossary though...please, oh please, will 
writers who use Welsh put a pronunciation guide in?  I hate reading 
words that I can't remotely pronounce.  I kept flipping back to 
Will's crash course from Bran in order to try to figure out the words 
that came up later.

Or something.  I
> always wanted a book about Will, at the very least, a few years 
down the
> line.  And do you think Cooper was setting us up for a future 
romance
> between Bran and Jane in SILVER ON THE TREE? 

Wish she'd get going if so.  It's been 25 years...

 At the time I didn't think
> Jane was Worthy, but I could live with the idea now, given a bit 
more
> character development.

I really liked her.  On the other hand, there is all this 
foreshadowing about Bran in TGK that left me feeling nervous about 
him right to the end.

Rebecca wrote of the Stantons:

> Agreed.  They remind me a bit of the Weasleys, actually.  Probably 
just
> because there are so darn many kids and they relate to each other 
in that
> same comfortable, teasing way that the Weasleys do. 

Nicer, even, I thought.  I never would've said I'd like to be the 
youngest of nine--being the younger of two was quite enough--but I 
found I envied Will.

> I love the opening of
> SILVER ON THE TREE, with Will and Stephen hanging out by the river.
> Although the bit with the white plume moths, though arguably 
necessary,
> always makes me sad.

Especially given the ending, which leaves Will with no one to share 
that part of his life with.  I suppose he could seek out other Old 
Ones.

Amy
who read The Grey King all the way from Hartford to Detroit, and 
smiled to see that the rent-a-car place was on Merriman